I have always felt that Earth, and Nature and all they encompass, is like a big community of individual characters that work together, sometimes push against each other–but they are all entwined, as are we.
I refer to many elements of Nature as proper nouns–The Wind, The Wood, and The Big Water–because I'm very aware of them as independent spirits. I can't tell them what to do. I love hearing and seeing them, but they have much greater power than me and I respect that. But they, and we, are all entwined. You toss a log in a stream and it not only has consequences to the impact area, but everything that is connected to that water is impacted. Our environmental situation is dire. I wish schools would continue teaching science, but I wish too they would teach more Native American and Indiginous traditions and cultures. The Indiginous are so much more in tune with Nature, and sadly many are losing their Nature because of greed and exploitation and climate issues.
All of these characters seem magnified in Maine. In Oregon, The Wind was beautiful and of course could wreak havoc, just as it does anywhere, but The Wind here comes off the sea and it has an entirely different sound than when it came off the coastal range. The Wood here is more mysterious, for me anyway, as it feels like it holds spirits more firmly. The back Wood is much more uninviting than the side Wood. I don't go to the back Wood, except maybe once a year to make sure nobody is dumping on it like they did years ago before our time [sadly, a common practice, like a midden of trash].
Having a view of The Big Water is not something I even knew we had when we bought the house [we bought it without physically visiting]. It is actually a cove that we see - but sometimes I look at it and just get very happy, "Oh, that's right, we live by the sea."
We have lots of gusty days here, which is part of sea living. I think it is beautiful and physically satisfying to live here because of its location and history–it is a very visceral place for me. There of course is sort of a romance to living in Maine propagated by writers and artists over the centuries, I suppose. It is actually a lot like Oregon in some ways, renagade and independent. But it is very different in the people, I feel. I feel like there is a stronger work ethic here. If you don't work hard here in summer and fall, you will freeze to death come November, it's that simple.
